Курс английского языка: введение в семиотику

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Lesson 3: Signs (meaning-making)

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Dyadic Model of Signification

'Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign'
Ch.S.Peirce (Peirce 1931-58, 2.172).

Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. It is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics. 'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign created by F. de Saussure.

He defined a sign as being composed of:

  • a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and
  • the 'signified' (signifiй) - the concept it represents.
The sign is the whole that results from the association of the signifier with the signified (Saussure 1983, 67; Saussure 1974, 67).

The relationship between the signifier and the signified is referred to as 'signification', and this is represented in the Saussurean diagram by the arrows. The horizontal line marking the two elements of the sign is referred to as 'the bar'.

Class assignment 1 (individual work, done orally):

Watch the video and decide what information can be added to the text above.

Class assignment 2 (group work, done orally):

If we take a linguistic example, the word 'Open' (when it is invested with meaning by someone who encounters it on a shop doorway) is a sign consisting of:
  • a signifier: the word open;
  • a signified concept: that the shop is open for business.

Analize the five pictures below and specify the signified concept of the word "open" for each of them.

  1. picture 1
  2. picture 2
  3. picture 3
  4. picture 4
  5. picture 5
from
  • http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/51042728/LED_Open_Sign.html
  • http://www.firehouseneon.com/e House
  • http://www.gamespot.com/pages/unions/articles.php?board_id=909183949&union_id=10328&page=5
  • http://grcc-ip.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html
  • http://www.vmga.org/painted_theater/index.html

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    Resources for Lesson 3:
  • Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners.

    • Пермский государственный университет
    Хостинг от uCoz